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I've given Robert DeNiro a lot of grief in recent years for his paycheck jobs and the perpetually disappointng Tribeca Film Festival. But I gotta give the guy props for giving his best performance in... Read on

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Toronto: The Brothers Affleck

September 10, 2010 , ι Lou Lumenick

Ben Affleck tops his directing debut "Gone Baby Gone'' with the more commercial Boston-based romantic thriller, "The Town.'' I'll have a full review when this opens in a week, but the former smirking Miramax star does a bang-up job both as the director and as the leader of a band of bank robbers. The complications come fast and furious when his hot-headed best friend (Jeremy Renner of "The Hurt Locker") and collaborator learns that the assistant manager of the bank they've just robbed lives in the neighborhood and wants to "deal'' with her. Affleck offers to take care of the woman (Rebecca Hall) himself, and an unlikely romance blossoms. But she may be just what a tough FBI agent (Jon Hamm in his best screen role to date) needs to bust the gang. The three heists shown in the film -- the last at Fenway Park -- are excitingly staged, and Affleck builds on the gravitas he began showing in "Hollywoodland.''
	 
REVIEW: JOAQUIN WOUNDED
	 
Ben's younger brother Casey also had a film screening at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday, the lamentable mockumentary "I'm Still Here,'' which opens today in New York City. My colleague Kyle dismisses this disaster, which pretty much erases any doubt that Joaquin Phoenix's "retirement'' and rap career is a misguided piece of performance art. Stumbling through this movie in a drug-addled haze, simulated or not, ought to finish off what's left of his once-promising career. Up here in Toronto a few years ago for "Walk the Line,'' he talked about his extreme ambivalence about acting. He won't have to worry about that anymore.

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She says, he says

September 09, 2010 , ι V.A. Musetto

Will French provocateur Jean-Luc Godard be coming to Hollywood to receive an honorary Oscar in November? It depends upon who you listen to. A few days ago, Godard's wife, filmmaker Anne-Marie... Read on

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Joaquin Phoenix must really think we're stupid

September 09, 2010 , ι Reed Tucker

OK, not we're really not buying it now. There's been a lot of talk that the actor's new documentary "I'm Still Here," in which he abandons Hollywood for a rap career, is a giant stunt or hoax of... Read on

OK, not we're really not buying it now. 
	 
	 
There's been a lot of talk that the actor's new documentary "I'm Still Here," in which he abandons Hollywood for a rap career, is a giant stunt or hoax of some sort. Today comes a very large hint that the whole thing is BS.
	 
	 
We just got a report that a disheveled, bearded Joaquin Phoenix impersonator is loose at the Toronto Film Festival. 
	 
And how did we learn this? From a friggin' press release.
	 
	 
That's right: The Joaquin Phoenix impersonator has a publicist. Bad form, fellahs. Bad form.
	 
	 
And his publicist is "confident" that either the real Joaquin or the impersonator will be making some sort of statement just before tomorrow night's Toronto premiere of "I'm Still Here." "You decide, real or otherwise," the publicist writes.
	 
	 
Um, I'm going with "otherwise." Does anyone besides Spencer and Heidi think the media are this easily manipulated or just plain dumb? "I'm Not Here," even if it isn't on the up and up, sounds like an interesting, ambitious project. The coolest thing Joaquin could do would be to release the film, and just keep a low profile, never really addressing whether the movie is a stunt or not. Just let people wonder endlessly. That's the most perfect way to cap off a piece of performance art this grand. This stunty crap with supposed impersonators feels like it's ruining the mystery and just cheapening the whole affair.
	 
	 
Have the discipline to say and do nothing further, Joaquin. Please, for your art.

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Victory for Polanski

September 09, 2010 , ι V.A. Musetto

Roman Polanski's political thriller "The Ghost Writer'' has just been named the best film of the year that ended July 1 by the 296 members of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI).... Read on

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'I'm Still Here' a hoax? And does anyone care?

September 09, 2010 , ι Kyle Smith

Longtime People magazine critic Leah Rozen points out that Joaquin Phoenix is basically doing an Andy Kaufman shtick in "I'm Still Here," a purported documentary (that everyone thinks is a... Read on

Longtime People magazine critic Leah Rozen points out that Joaquin Phoenix is basically doing an Andy Kaufman shtick in "I'm Still Here," a purported documentary (that everyone thinks is a mockumentary) in which Phoenix pukes, punches an assistant, does drugs (or appears to), calls hookers and generally behaves like a lower-body aperture for 108 unbelievably repetitive minutes. Is Phoenix simply doing an intentionally obnoxious character, the new Tony Clifton? I think so. Here's something else Phoenix has in common with Kaufman: Everyone who endured Kaufman's Letterman appearances, his "Mighty Mouse" act, his wrestling adventures, and his lounge-lizardy Tony Clifton as they happened can attest: Kaufman wasn't actually funny. He was doing performance art, not comedy, a piece aimed at an aggressively hip audience. Some people will suffer through a grueling display of untalent if they can be reassured that it's "edgy." Leah Rozen, Jeffrey Lyons and I all loathed "I'm Still Here" but my hip colleague Sara Stewart liked it, and so did lots of others,
	 according to Rotten Tomatoes. The film has buzz, or anti-buzz, or something.

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Toronto: Singing hockey players

September 09, 2010 , ι Lou Lumenick

I arrived in Toronto yesterday afternoon, staying at the same Yonge Street hotel where I've been on seven of my last nine trips. The Internet was down and remained so into the early morning. I was told it was a citywide problem involving Canada Bell, which as it happens is also the provider for the Toronto International Film Festival as well as a major corporate sponsor (the festival's new theater complex/headquarters on King St., which opens on Sunday, is named the Bell Lightbox).
	 
You'd imagine this alleged widespread outage would have a major impact, but it went unmentioned in this morning's papers as well as on the web. Well, things have gone downhill at the hotel, where it took me six hours after arrival to get a refrigerator that I ordered three days before leaving. When I first called about the lack of connectivity, the guy at the front desk didn't apologize. "What do you expect me to do about it?" were his exact words.
	 
Anyway, screenings begin in a couple of hours, when I'll see the thriller "Stone'' with Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton. Also screening is the official opening night galas, "Score: A Hockey Musical.'' Peter Howell of the Toronto Star bends over backwards to be nice to this local crowd-pleaser: "How you judge [it] depends on your tolerance for pop ditties and groaners, but by my reckoning [director Michael] McGowan scores. He slams doubters into the boards with an amusing, tuneful and even thoughtful tale of a puck star named Farey (Noah Reid), who loves hockey, but not the violence.''
	 
Somehow I place more trust in Rick Groen's two-star capsule review in the Globe and Mail. Mocking it as "Scoreless: A Movie Meiocrity,'' Groen writes that it "wants to be 'The Umbrellas of Cherbourg' in shin pads; instead it's a singing 'Slapshot' minus the laughs...Along the way, the cast, on skates and off, warble and dance and fight and fall in love and above all, ankle their way through the slushy doggerel of rhyming couplets like, 'Are we supposed to believe this baloney/You couldn't even drive a Zamboni.' How fitting that the setting is Toronto -- this thing plays like the [Maple] Leafs.''
	 
Don't expect this musical with Olivia Newton-John in U.S. theaters, but Sony Pictures Classics, which is bringing nine titles to TIFF, has picked up another Canadian Film bowing here. "Barney's Version,'' a comedy based on a novel by Mordecai Richter, stars Americans Paul Giamatti and Dustin Hoffman.

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DVD Extra: Viva Fox! 15-title Kazan set coming

September 07, 2010 , ι Lou Lumenick

Fox has confirmed a Nov. 9 release date for "The Elia Kazan Collection,'' a 15-film set which as I've reported earlier will include the long-awaited U.S. DVD debuts of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn'' (1945), "Viva Zapata!'' (1952) with Marlon Brando, "Man on a Tightrope'' (1953) with Fredric March, and "Wild River'' (1960) with Montgomery Clift -- as well as Kazan's autobiographical "America, America'' (1963). The latter title has been licensed from Warner, which is also kicking in the previously available "A Streetcar Named Desire'' (1951), "East of Eden'' (1955), "Baby Doll'' (1956), "A Face in the Crowd'' (1957) and "Splendor in the Grass'' (1951).
	 

	 
Three previously released Fox titles are also included: "Boomerang!'' and the Oscar-winning "Gentlemen's Agreement'' (both 1947) and "Panic in the Streets'' (1950). And from Sony, Fox is licensing Kazan's other Oscar-winner, "On the Waterfront'' (1954). As a bonus disc, the set (which has a $200 SRP) will include Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones' new one-hour documentary "A Letter to Elia,'' which will air on Oct. 4 as part of PBS' "American Masters'' series.
	 

	 
This is one of the most comprehensive sets ever devoted to a single director -- every single one of Kazan's features through "America, America'' (there were three more after that, none notable) is represented save Kazan's sophomore effort, "The Sea of Grass,'' which is apparently tied up by rights issue. And it's Fox's first set drawing on unreleased deep-catalogue titles since "Murnau, Borzage and Fox'' nearly two years ago.
	 
The studio is expected to shortly announce an even larger DVD set marking the 75th anniversary of the 1935 merger of Fox Film Corporation, founded in 1915, and Twentieth Century Productions, founded in 1933, but as we've noted earlier, it's expected that the only new-to-DVD title will be "Cavalcade,'' which won the Best Picture Oscar for 1933.
	 
"Cavalcade'' and the new-to-DVD Kazan titles are expected to eventually be made available as single-title releases.

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Oscar Watch: Very early list

September 07, 2010 , ι Lou Lumenick

The Gurus O'Gold -- a panel of Oscar prognosticators I dropped out of a couple of years ago for various reasons -- have their first list of Best Picture contenders up at Movie City News. All eleven... Read on

The Gurus O'Gold -- a panel of Oscar prognosticators I dropped out of a couple of years ago for various reasons -- have
	 their first list of Best Picture contenders up at Movie City News. All eleven of the panelists have chosen the already released "Inception,'' "The Kids are All Right,'' and "Toy Story 3,'' as well as "The King's Speech,'' which began screening for selected critics before its much-lauded bow in Venice.
	 
Ten members of the panel chose David Fincher's "The Social Network'' and The Coen Bros' "True Grit,'' while nine selected Darren Aronofky's "Black Swan.'' There were eight votes apiece for Danny Boyle's "127 Hours,'' David O. Russell's "The Fighter,'' Mike Leigh's "Another Year'' and Edward Zwick's "Love and Other Drugs.''
	 
This seems like a fairly plausible list (except perhaps the Zwick), but I'm going to wait until I've seen a few more titles in Toronto before listing my morning line next week.

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DVD Extra: Monster from the id

September 07, 2010 , ι Lou Lumenick

Interviewing Leslie Nielsen back in the '80s for one of the "Naked Gun'' comedies, I remarked that during his very long career he had appeared on virtually every dramatic TV series of the '60s and '70s except one.
	 
"Well, they didn't want me on 'Star Trek' because basically they stole it from 'Forbidden Planet,' '' Nielsen said, referring to his landmark 1956 film that not only hugely influenced Gene Roddenberry's franchise but practically every science fiction film that followed.
	 
"Forbidden Planet'' arrives today in a razor-sharp Blu-ray edition derived from the excellent restoration released on HD-DVD in 2006, complete with all of its copious extras including deleted scenes, effects reels and "The Invisible Boy,'' a feature spinoff with the breakout star, Robby the Robot, who went on to appear in the TV series "Lost in Space.''
	 
These were comparatively cheesy-looking affairs, unlike "Forbidden Planet,'' a major big-budget release that was MGM's first foray into science-fiction since the part-talkie version of "The Mysterious Island'' in 1929. "Forbidden Planet'' is among the last films supervised by the studio's legendary art director, Cedric Gibbons, and its longtime chief set decorator, Edwin B. Willis, and their vision of a distant planet with a Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired home and a vast underground infrastructure in the 22nd century was hugely influential.
	 
The elaborate and Oscar-nominated special effects, concocted by a team that included A. Arnold Gillespie ("The Wizard of Oz'') and Disney animator Joshua Meador, still impress more than half a century later -- the appearance of a huge invisible creature outlined by blaster beams is one of the key images in '50s science fiction.

The film, which boasts Hollywood's first all-electronic score (or "tonalities'' as they were billed to assuage the musicians' union) was photographed by 13-time Oscar nominee George J. Folsey in Eastmancolor -- soon to be known as Metrocolor when it was processed by MGM's labs -- which produces a comparatively muted pallette compared to Technicolor, complementing the otherwordly interiors and landscapes (apparently filmed entirely on soundstages).
	 
The film's "original story'' by Irving Block and Allen Adler (Cyril Hume is credited with the actual, quite literate script) is basically Shakespeare's "The Tempest'' transposed to Deep Space, where commander Nielsen (who plays it very, very straight) and his saucer-like spaceship land in search of settlers who haven't been heard from in 20 years.
	 
The planet's sole inhabitants are a self-proclaimed genius (Walter Pidgeon) -- who along with his wife, survived a mysterious "planetary force'' that killed the other settlers when they tried to leave -- and his mini-skirted daughter (Anne Francis) who was born shortly before her mother's death.
	 
Soon the killings resume -- and director Fred MacLeod Wilcox (a brother-in-law of MGM president Nicholas Schenk, his relatively sparse resume includes "Lassie Come Home'' and several sequels) builds considerable suspense as the responsible party is unmasked and dealt with in ways that became very familiar to sci-fi fans.

Despite some dated humor (principally involving Earl Holliman as the ship's cook, who gets drunk with Robbie), "Forbidden Planet'' holds up extremely well for its age. The cast includes such familiar faces as Warren Stevens ("The Barefoot Contessa'') as a prototype for DeForest Kelly's Bones and TV stalwarts Jack Kelly, Richard Anderson and James Drury as crewmen. Marvin Miller memorably voices Robby and the narration is provided by Les Tremayne.
	 
Warner Home Video is also bowing Tim Burton's vastly underrated comedy "Mars Attacks!'' (1996) -- basically an alien-invasion version of "It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World'' with a huge all-star cast that includes Jack Nichsolson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Sylvia Sidney, Tom Jones, Jim Brown, Pierce Brosnan and a very young Natalie Portman and Jack Black.
	 
Other sci-fi new to Blu-ray today are the director cut of George Lucas' "THX 1138,'' The Wachowskis' "Matrix Reloaded,'' Richard Linklater's "A Scanner Darkly'' and the feature version of "Lost in Space'' starring William Hurt and Gary Oldman.

For the Blu-ray debut of Ken Russell's "Tommy,'' also out today, Sony has restored the original soundtrack -- it was the only film ever recorded in five channel Quintaphonic, a very short-lived predecessor to Dolby Surround. This acid trip of a movie -- the colors virtually pop off the screen in Blu-ray -- follows The Who's famous rock opera so closely that there's no spoken dialogue. Roger Daltry sings the title role, Ann-Margret is his neglectful mother and Oliver Reed is waaay over the top as his evil stepdad.
	 
Released to celebrate its 35th anniversary, "Tommy'' works better for its individual numbers than as a whole. Highlights are Elton John performing "Pinball Wizard'' and Tina Turner's "Acid Queen.'' Jack Nicholson turns up briefly as a doctor (singing with a British accent) and leers at Ann-Margret.

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About the Authors

LOU LUMENICK Lou Lumenick is The Post's chief film critic. He will be appearing Oct. 20 as an on-air guest programmer for Turner Classic Movies, joining Robert Osborne to introduce "The Last Flight'' (1931) and "All Through the Night" (1942) beginning at 11 p.m. EST. Lou previously co-curated the TCM film series "Shadows of Russia." Columnist Archives

KYLE SMITH Kyle Smith has been a film critic for the Post since 2005. He also contributes book reviews and columns on current affairs to the Sunday Post and is the author of the novels "Love Monkey," which was adapated into a CBS TV series, and "A Christmas Caroline." He is a graduate of Yale University. Columnist Archives

V.A. MUSETTO V.A. Musetto is film editor and a film critic. His specialty is indie and foreign movies, with an emphasis on Asian. He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and frequents film festivals from Tokyo to Rotterdam to Transylvania.

REED TUCKER Reed Tucker writes movie features for the Sunday paper. He didn't like "The Love Guru" either. He is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill.

SARA STEWART Sara Stewart is a features writer who majors in movies and minors in books, women's issues, health, fitness, science, music and any sort of participatory journalism that doesn't involve being on a boat.